FTComments: "Why the hell does a "just leave it on my porch"-delivery service even exist is beyond me. So all people that like to steal shiat have to do is just stroll passed houses and parcels just lie there waiting for them to pick up?"

I get asked this a lot. You know, nobody minds it until THEIR package gets lost. Then it's, "OMG, how could you ever think that was a good idea?!?! WTFBBQ!?!"

I hate, hate hate UPS, I ship Fedex whenever I can. I used to work for a company that did Fedex for our returns and UPS for our initial delivery's. The Fedex packages always made it on time to the desired location. UPS on the other hand, they would not deliver and say it was delivered, deliver to a neighbor house and not get a signature, say they got a signature but be unable to produce one. Deliver it to a business down the street, deliever it to an empty log. It was a nightmare, the only thing worse was the dealing with it when it happened. By the time UPS determined they had in fact farked up it was the next quarter.

There is a rash of this sort of thing going on about the entire country. Like, people actually drive around and follow the truck, wait till it leaves, and run up and hork whatever was delivered.It's really amusing when it's another delivery company making the theft.

FTComments: "Why the hell does a "just leave it on my porch"-delivery service even exist is beyond me. So all people that like to steal shiat have to do is just stroll passed houses and parcels just lie there waiting for them to pick up?"

I get asked this a lot. You know, nobody minds it until THEIR package gets lost. Then it's, "OMG, how could you ever think that was a good idea?!?! WTFBBQ!?!"

Some of us work for a living, and having someone present for Fedex or UPS to deliver is not always possible. And then, having to drive 15 miles to the UPS/Fedex depot is a royal PITA.

Well, at least the thief got caught; it's a refreshing change from the usual meth-heads that follow delivery trucks around and pick up all the deliveries; they're much harder to identify, even with a camera, because they're smart enough to at least wear a hoodie with the drawstring pulled.

Hmm....I have had 9 UPS deliveries and one FedEx delivery in the last 2 weeks. Guess which package looked like it had been run over. Hell, the FedEx guy was working out of a Budget Rental truck FFS, I am sure he had packages all over the back of that thing smashing into one another. I'm glad my item was not something breakable, but dread to think what happened to any Apple products that might have been in there.

Balchinian:Hmm....I have had 9 UPS deliveries and one FedEx delivery in the last 2 weeks. Guess which package looked like it had been run over. Hell, the FedEx guy was working out of a Budget Rental truck FFS, I am sure he had packages all over the back of that thing smashing into one another. I'm glad my item was not something breakable, but dread to think what happened to any Apple products that might have been in there.

FedEx seems to to have few rules for their last mile delivery contractors. When I get packages from FedEx, It's frequently from a lady delivering them out of what looks like her personal van. Just an unmarked white van.

FTComments: "Why the hell does a "just leave it on my porch"-delivery service even exist is beyond me. So all people that like to steal shiat have to do is just stroll passed houses and parcels just lie there waiting for them to pick up?"

I get asked this a lot. You know, nobody minds it until THEIR package gets lost. Then it's, "OMG, how could you ever think that was a good idea?!?! WTFBBQ!?!"

Some of us work for a living, and having someone present for Fedex or UPS to deliver is not always possible. And then, having to drive 15 miles to the UPS/Fedex depot is a royal PITA.

FTFA: the fact remains that-of all people-a UPS driver shouldn't be wandering around stealing packages off of doorsteps.

Why "of all people?" Of all people, I would think a delivery driver would have among the best opportunity to commit such a crime. No one is going to question a delivery driver walking around carrying a package...

I hate the postal service. Actually, I may be beginning to hate South Dakota. My reasons for being here are a bit sad (and very necessary), but compared to my time in Ohio, I have had:

1. Two different iPods stolen, as well as a pistol, from vehicles2. A confirmed delivery package from my mother stolen from my mailbox3. Another priority mail package stolen from my mailbox4. A missing parcel from my PO Box (there was a claim tag in the box but there was nothing at the counter)

When I left my car unlocked in my driveway in Ohio, nothing ever happened. When I came out here and lived in a condo in a relatively nice neighborhood, I got back into the habit of locking my car. Could've sworn that it was locked the night before, but either way, it was unlocked the next day. First iPod gone.

BF is VERY anal about locking his truck. When we had to live in a hotel while he closed on a house, both his handgun and the second iPod were stolen.

Then the mail stuff started after we moved into this house. Between slow mail, mail showing as delivered and not being there, and the slowest postal workers on the planet, I miss Ohio. At least then I got my mail and didn't panic if my car remained unlocked overnight.

Live in a gated community in Texas (was the best/quickest place to find to rent when I moved down last year, eventually going to buy a house else where). One of the nice things is that the front office would sign for packages. It got to the point that UPS was getting lazy and wasn't even TRYING to knock on doors; they'd just try to dump everything at the front office.

So what did they do last week when my $1100 dollar brand new laptop came via UPS? They left it on my damn porch instead of the front office! When I saw that on tracking I was ticked and semi-dreading the drive home.

A lot of online retailers won't. It's cheaper for them to fark over the occasional customer, or begrudgingly send out a replacement whatsis and take the loss, than it is to pay the extra buck or two to require a signature on everything they ship.

For high-importance person to person shipments, signature requirements make a lot of sense though. Or like Shnarpy said - deliver to work.

During the Christmas rush, FedEx just flat out lies about delivery times around here. They will tell you it's on the truck, it never arrives, then they update the page to say something like "Exception: inclement weather" or something like that, and it goes on for days. The roads are perfectly clear, you can see grass in the yard, but somehow it goes from being "on the truck for delivery" to "OMG impassable roads." Again, this goes on for days without a flake of snow. They just understaff during the holidays and then pull their "inclement weather" scam.

UPS is the exact opposite. I've seen the guy stop at the bottom of my hill - covered in snow and ice during blizzard conditions - and personally start trying to hike up the hill to deliver a package. I always meet him halfway w/ the ATV and give him a ride back.

FTFA: the fact remains that-of all people-a UPS driver shouldn't be wandering around stealing packages off of doorsteps.

Why "of all people?" Of all people, I would think a delivery driver would have among the best opportunity to commit such a crime. No one is going to question a delivery driver walking around carrying a package...

FedEx packages have a pretty distinctive color scheme and often have "FedEx" printed on them; they would look out of place being carried by someone in a brown UPS uniform.

Of course someone would actually have to be close enough to see the sneak-and-grab and recognize the disparity in the 10-15 seconds it would take for the event to unfold. Once UPS dude gets back to his truck he's set.

I realize that not everyone has a nice, secure office to have packages delivered to - and I am quite sad for them. I have absolutely everything shipped to my office. A bonus is that my girlfriend works the front desk, so I get an instant I.M. as soon as it lands.

A friend in a nearby cubicle (he is a part-time DJ who orders tech gear all the time) INSISTS on shipping everything to his house, then he stresses ALL DAY LONG, constantly refreshing the tracking page and worrying about his sh*t getting stolen. He is extremely paranoid about shipping things to the office for no actual reason.

Having UPS deliver things to your office doesn't always work either. A few years ago I sent in a laptop to get fixed and on the way back it got lost in transit, found, lost at the local depot, found, and then according to UPS delivery was attempted around 9 pm for 5 days in a row. They absolutely refused to deliver it during business hours. I finally got the damn thing when I read the section of the criminal code to a UPS manager that outlines that failure to give an item back to an owner is considered theft and that I had a police friend who works in commercial crime who would be willing to come down and charge him.

Englebert Slaptyback:FedEx packages have a pretty distinctive color scheme and often have "FedEx" printed on them; they would look out of place being carried by someone in a brown UPS uniform..

Being an Amazon Prime member and having received MANY packages from Fedex and UPS, I can say with absolute certainty that it is RARE if a Fedex package comes in a Fedex box. The only time that happens is if they needed it shipped from a Fedex store and they needed a box when they shipped something.

UPS, USPS and Fedex all deliver boxes that are the color of whatever this shipper sent them in.

Well they are both better then USPS, I have gone down to the post office and biatched several different times because she wouldn't deliver packages to my house. They kept giving me different excuses like "your driveway is too long and there is no turn around". Well I drive up it with a 20' dump trailer and back down it just fine, I would hope that a someone who drives for a living can back down it with a car. We finally put it together that she was afraid of our goose because she started putting packages halfway up the driveway on the ground. Finally they switched drivers and the new guy is great.

Optimus Primate:I realize that not everyone has a nice, secure office to have packages delivered to - and I am quite sad for them. I have absolutely everything shipped to my office. A bonus is that my girlfriend works the front desk, so I get an instant I.M. as soon as it lands.

A friend in a nearby cubicle (he is a part-time DJ who orders tech gear all the time) INSISTS on shipping everything to his house, then he stresses ALL DAY LONG, constantly refreshing the tracking page and worrying about his sh*t getting stolen. He is extremely paranoid about shipping things to the office for no actual reason.

I once shipped something to my office, a radioactive source for my nephews science fair project. Along the way the box got damaged a bit, and my name was scuffed off the label.

It was the second part of a shipment, and there was no identifying information like a packing list included because it was in the first box.

I knew about it when we got a company wide email asking "who was having radioactive material shipped to the workplace?"

Optimus Primate:I realize that not everyone has a nice, secure office to have packages delivered to - and I am quite sad for them. I have absolutely everything shipped to my office. A bonus is that my girlfriend works the front desk, so I get an instant I.M. as soon as it lands.

A friend in a nearby cubicle (he is a part-time DJ who orders tech gear all the time) INSISTS on shipping everything to his house, then he stresses ALL DAY LONG, constantly refreshing the tracking page and worrying about his sh*t getting stolen. He is extremely paranoid about shipping things to the office for no actual reason.

The fact that I don't have to work in a cubicle more than makes up for not getting packages at work. Don't feel sad for me.

Incog_Neeto:I hate, hate hate UPS, I ship Fedex whenever I can. I used to work for a company that did Fedex for our returns and UPS for our initial delivery's. The Fedex packages always made it on time to the desired location. UPS on the other hand, they would not deliver and say it was delivered, deliver to a neighbor house and not get a signature, say they got a signature but be unable to produce one. Deliver it to a business down the street, deliever it to an empty log. It was a nightmare, the only thing worse was the dealing with it when it happened. By the time UPS determined they had in fact farked up it was the next quarter.

/csb//hate UPS

I am fine with either service myself. Always had good results. It's the farking postal service that I can't stand. What's even worse are the two hybrid systems that UPS and FedEx have. UPS ironically calls their service 'Mail Innovations, and it sucks. Can't remember FedEx's version, but this is how they work:

For very small packages, someone figured out that USPS can effectively deliver those, since they visit every house 6 days a week, except for holidays. So FedEx or UPS gets the package to the nearest mail facility to you just fine. They accomplish their end of the job, but as soon as they hand it off to USPS, you are totally farked. Tracking only works up until the point that they get the package, and I have waited 2 weeks after they got it at the post office that's less than a mile from my house. 2 weeks while it sat there waiting to be delivered. I could have walked there, picked it up, walked home, and worn the device out in that time. I've found people online waiting a month or two. FedEx or UPS will throw your 'budget saver shipping' order on a truck if there's room, so that sometimes you get the cheap stuf fas fast as if it were 'Next Day'. Postal Service has a special pile things go into to be delivered on certain days, and regardless of the room they have, they won't send out your package until that day.

Unfortunately, there is no way to tell if your package will be delivered that way, and the people you are buying from have no control, either. If it's a small package that might end up in that particular limbo, I just pay for expedited shipping now, it's only the 'basic' that they do this on, and only if it's relatively small.